Card Room

Chapter 99 - Liuxi Village 05

Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou. Although he was in a state of blindness, Xiao Lou’s eyes were still clear and bright. It was just that there was a slight daze on the usually calm and smiling face. His world had suddenly turned dark. No wonder why he was at a loss.

Xiao Lou sensed that Group Leader Yu had stopped and couldn’t help asking nervously.

Yu Hanjiang whispered, “It’s fine, be careful of your feet.”

During the walk, Xiao Lou suddenly thought of something. He handed his card pack to Group Leader Yu. “For the next three hours, I can’t see anything and can’t control the cards. Group Leader Yu, I’ll give you all my cards. You can use them if you need them.”

Yu Hanjiang took the cards and couldn’t help his voice gentling. “Rest assured, leave these three hours to me.”

The two people left the forest and the mountain road in front of them was very narrow. They couldn’t pass it together. Yu Hanjiang took the initiative to go ahead before turning around to pull Xiao Lou’s arm. “The road here is slippery. Be careful.”

Xiao Lou nodded and followed Yu Hanjiang’s every step like a child learning to walk. Yu Hanjiang was very slow and patient, slowly taking him down the mountain.

They had just walked halfway when a couple also came to the mountain. It was the couple who left after coming to the temple last night. The middle-aged man saw them and asked in a strange manner, “The two of you, in fact, there was actually a stone at the temple. Did you pick it up?”

Yu Hanjiang spoke coldly. “No.”

The man exclaimed, “Are we stupid? No one dared to search the villagers’ homes last night and two gems were found outside the village. The broken temple is strange and there must be a gem there.”

The woman keenly found that Xiao Lou’s eyes were out of focus and he looked dazed while walking. Her eyes lit up and she whispered in her boyfriend’s ear. “The man behind is blind.”

The man looked closely and found that the other side really couldn’t see. He lowered his voice and spoke in her ear, “Act.”

The two people apparently thought that Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang had picked up the gem in the temple. Xiao Lou was blind and this was a great opportunity. As long as one of them was captured, they could force the gem to be handed over. Such a fast method of clearing the instance was much better than risking their safety to find the gems.

The two people looked at each other and the man suddenly through the Balance card. Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou were trapped on the scale at the same time. Then the woman threw out a long, white silk. The silk was like a white snake as it swept towards the two men and precisely wrapped around Xiao Lou’s neck!

The woman held the other end of the white slug and laughed with narrowed eyes. “My white silk can even break reinforced cement.” She turned and ordered coldly. “Bring out the gem or my hand will pull hard and your friend’s neck will be broken.”

Yu Hanjiang’s expression suddenly sank and his voice was sharp. “Let go of him!”

The woman smiled. “Don’t worry, I don’t want to kill people. I just want to clear the instance. There are five gems left. You can go and find another one while giving the previous one to us. Isn’t this helpful?”

Xiao Lou’s eyes were dark, his neck was tangled up by a soft white silk and his lips gradually became pale.

He was trapped but his expression was still calm. He smiled to the woman in the distance and said, “You want to grab the gem from our hands while I’m blind and push others into a position of danger. There is no need to find so many excuses.”

The woman was startled. She knew she was wrong but was unable to admit it. “The clearance rules didn’t say that we couldn’t rob others in this secret room. The Spades secret room is a world of predators. This is just your misfortune.”

Xiao Lou laughed. “The people who are unlucky isn’t necessarily us.”

The middle-aged man spoke impatiently. “Don’t speak nonsense and hand over the gem!”

Xiao Lou gently grabbed Yu Hanjiang’s arm to give a hint for action. Yu Hanjiang understood the meaning and instantly took out Xiao Lou’s card pack. Fortunately, the two people had been together since the start of 3 of Hearts. Yu Hanjiang was clear about the cards in Xiao Lou’s pack, the specific skills and their location.

Liu Yong’s skill: Hold hands with tearful eyes, unable to speak a word. Both people could be controlled at the same time. Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou were trapped by the balance and couldn’t move but their cards weren’t restricted.

Yu Hanjiang quickly summoned Liu Yong and appointed the pair. The two of them were affected by the card and couldn’t help holding each other’s hands while looking at each other tearfully.

The woman was appalled because she found that she couldn’t control her movements or her tears. The man’s face changed suddenly. He clearly wasn’t willing to do so but his body was driven by a mysterious force. He reached out and tightly held the other person, tears falling from his eyes like an unscrewed tap that simply wouldn’t stop.

The man and woman held hands and looked at each other with tears in their eyes. She couldn’t control her white silk and it soon loosened from Xiao Lou’s neck. A large amount of oxygen poured into his mouth and nose, so that Xiao Lou couldn’t help coughing violently.

Yu Hanjiang immediately placed an arm around Xiao Lou’s shoulders and stroked his back, face full of worry. “Are you okay?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “It’s fine, just a lack of oxygen... um...”

After coughing for a moment, Xiao Lou’s pale face turned red again and he turned to look in the direction of the two people. He couldn’t see anything but he knew that Group Leader Yu had definitely found a way to control them.

Yu Hanjiang raised an eyebrow to the two weeping people and spoke coldly, “If you don’t act against me then I won’t act against you. If you touch me, don’t blame me for being rude.”

The moment he finished speaking, he aimed at the woman with Liu Yong’s second skill.

Belt gradually widens with no regret—the woman instantly lost 15 kg and couldn’t attack for 15 minutes. She was already very thin and losing 15 kg resulted in a handful of skin and bones. Her entire face was dry like firewood, her hands looked like a zombie and her legs became two chopsticks. Her skin was severely dehydrated and wrinkled. She aged 30 years in an instant.

The man saw her become as thin as a bone and his face was pale with fright. “What did you do to her?”

The woman saw her bony hand and was terrified. “Ah... how did this happen!”

At this time, the scale trapping Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou was lifted. Yu Hanjiang moved like a ghost and came behind the woman, a sharp knife against her throat. He asked coldly, “You dared to use the white silk to bully him?”

The sound as so cold it was like it came from the depths of hell. The sharp knife reached the fragile neck and in inch forward could cut her artery. The woman screamed with horror, “I was wrong! Ah, spare my life! I beg you not to kill me... I apologize to your friend!”

The young woman was covered with snot and tears and looked extremely embarrassed. Her partner also changed his expression, “E-Excuse me, we didn’t hurt your friend. D-Don’t kill her.”

Yu Hanjiang didn’t intend to kill her The knife in his hand moved forward. The woman felt the knife cut her skin and immediately screamed, “Ah......”

However, the knife suddenly stopped and didn’t continue to cut. Yu Hanjiang had stopped in time and left a clear and distinctive bloody mark on her neck. “Remember this lesson. Don’t think that others are easy to bully just because they are blind. Taking advantage of those who are vulnerable isn’t a good habit.”

He put away the knife and confiscated the woman’s white silk card. “You used this card to bully him and I will take away this card.” He used Balance to trap the two people in place and turned to leave with Xiao Lou.

Xiao Lou couldn’t see and didn’t dare to move. It wasn’t until Yu Hanjiang’s familiar breath was close and the man’s long and powerful hand gently held his arm that Xiao Lou was relieved. “You resolved it?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Yes, I confiscated the card that tied you up.”

Xiao Lou couldn’t help smiling. Group Leader Yu really refused to take any losses. However, these people only had themselves to blame for using the white silk card to strangle him.

Yu Hanjiang looked up at the winding mountain road and whispered, “Professor Xiao, why don’t I carry you down the mountain? The road here is narrow and slipper. It isn’t convenient for you to walk.”

The blind Xiao Lou wasn’t good at moving forward. He didn’t argue and nodded. “Then I will trouble you.”

Yu Hanjiang leaned over and gently carried Xiao Lou behind him. The feeling made Xiao Lou feel slightly awkward. As a child, only his father had carried him like this. Once he grew up, he couldn’t be so close to the same sex.

Lying on the man’s back and being carried by the other side, Xiao Lou’s breath was slightly smothered and his heart beat faster. His vision was dark so his hearing and touch were more acute than usual. He could clearly hear Yu Hanjiang’s breathing and clearly feel the strong muscles of the other person’s body. The sound of the heart ‘thumping’ echoed in his ear. Xiao Lou’s ears were slightly hot and he turned his head to one side out of fear that he would accidentally rub against Group Leader Yu’s neck.

Yu Hanjiang carried Xiao Lou and walked lightly. For Yu Hanjiang, Professor Xiao was too light. He wasn’t even as heavy as the sack Yu Hanjiang carried when he was training at the police academy.

Yu Hanjiang easily carried Xiao Lou and along the way, there were many challengers looking curiously at them. Yu Hanjiang ignored the eyes and brought Xiao Lou back to the temple. Shao Qingge saw them and couldn’t help wondering, “What’s wrong?”

Ye Qi ran over and worriedly asked, “Is Professor Xiao injured?”

Yu Hanjiang carried Xiao Lou back to the room and gently placed him on the ground. “He is blind.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “It is the three hours blindness that was mentioned in the prompts when entering the secret room.”

Ye Qi waved his finger in front of Xiao Lou and found this person’s eyes didn’t respond. “Is it a sudden blindness?”

Xiao Lou felt helpless. “Yes, there is no warning.”

Shao Qingge stroked his chin. “This is difficult. Won’t it be trouble if we suddenly become blind while acting?”

Yu Hanjiang also had this concern and suggested, “If we have experienced three hours of blindness before acting in the evening then it is a good thing. This negative effect is only once a day and blind people won’t’ be hit again. However, if someone didn’t become blind during the day then it is best not to take part in the action in the evening, lest something goes wrong in the middle.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “Then we will stay in the temple today. If someone is blind then it is convenient to take care of them.”

Neither Ye Qi or Shao Qingge had any objections. Yu Hanjiang took out the card he just confiscated and said, “An A-grade tool card, White Silk. It can freely stretch and extend up to 50 metres, instantly tying around the designated target.”

Xiao Lou said, “It is a good card.”

Ye Qi’s face was curious.”You got a new card?”

Xiao Lou spoke helplessly, “Someone saw that I was blind and caught me, threatening Group Leader Yu to hand over the gem...”

Ye Qi remembered that while he was guarding the materials at the construction site with Xiao Lou in 3 of Spades, six people saw they were weak and tried to grab their food, only for Ye Qi to counter-control them. It seemed that today, challengers also touched the wrong person.

It was just that this was only the first day. To already start robbing people, they were too anxious.

Ye Qi couldn’t help scolding them, “Some people want to steal and take shortcuts. What is this foul thing? Don’t mention the fact that we don’t have gems. Even if we have gems, we found them with our own ability. Why should we give it to them!”

Shao Qingge said, “Humans are bullies.” He looked at Xiao Lou and smiled. “Unfortunately, they bullied the wrong people. Even if Professor Xiao can’t see, his heart is like a mirror and he has many good cards.”

Xiao Lou laughed. “Don’t laugh at me. I can’t see and can’t operate the cards. It was thanks to Group Leader Yu.” He turned to look at Yu Hanjiang, who lightly said, “Yes.”

Ye Qi asked, “Professor Xiao, aren’t you blind? How do you know if Group Leader Yu is on the left or the right?”

Xiao Lou’s ears turned red. He could feel Group Leader Yu’s breathing and naturally knew where he was. However, it wasn’t good to say this directly. Xiao Lou quickly changed the topic. “By the way, I caught a hare with Group Leader Yu. Today, we can have roasted hare for lunch.”

Ye Qi’s eyes brightened. “You really caught a hare! Yesterday’s grilled fish is left plus there is a roasted hare. We can have a full meal!” He actively took the rabbit. “I’ll take care of it!”

Shao Qingge looked at Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang with a smile before turning to leave with Ye Qi. Only Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang were left in the broken temple. Yu Hanjiang saw that Xiao Lou was slightly pale and wondered, “Do you want to drink water?”

Xiao Lou had just been strangled and felt thirsty. He heard this and nodded. “Yes.”

Yu Hanjiang got up and found a clean bamboo tube to pick up some water from the mountain spring before handing it to Xiao Lou.

Xiao Lou bowed his head to drink a mouthful. The spring water in the mountains had the fragrance of bamboo leaves and the water was clear and sweet. He couldn’t help taking the bamboo tube from Yu Hanjiang to drink more. His lips were soon wet with spring water and the sweet spring water entered his throat. Xiao Lou’s expression eased a lot and he couldn’t help giving a relaxed smile.

The temple was very quiet. He sat them quietly drinking water and the side of his face seemed particularly soft in the sunlight. Yu Hanjiang stared at him and forgot to remove his line of sight. It wasn’t until Xiao Lou drank all the water and handed the bamboo tube back that Yu Hanjiang’s senses suddenly returned.

Ignoring the strangeness in his heart, Yu Hanjiang calmly took back the bamboo tube. A gentleness that he didn’t even notice was in his low voice, “Do you still want to drink?”

“No, thank you.”

Yu Hanjiang asked, “Are you hungry? I’ll get you something to eat.”

Xiao Lou wondered. “Is Ye Qi roasting a hare?”

YU Hanjiang said, “I can’t let him roast it, he will definitely burn it. I’ll go personally.”

Xiao Lou smiled. “Group Leader Yu’s roasted fish was really delicious. I can’t see or help you, so I’ll have to trouble you.”

Yu Hanjiang blurted out, “No trouble. Rest here and wait for me for a while.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “Okay.”

Yu Hanjiang went out the door and saw Ye Qi busy pulling off hare fur. The hare’s fur wasn’t pulled out cleanly. Shao Qingge wasn’t good at handling ingredients and stood by the side watching with folded arms.

Yu Hanjiang drove Ye Qi away. “Give it to me.”

Ye Qi awkwardly handed the hare to him. “Yes, I’m not very good at this.”

Yu Hanjiang said, “I’ll get it. Go in and wait for food.”

Ye Qi turned to find Xiao Lou. He had just walked into the room when he tripped on the ground and let out a loud noise. Xiao Lou couldn’t see what was going on and immediately asked, “What’s going on?”

Shao Qingge came after hearing the sound and hoked, “Ye Qi, do you have to give Professor Xiao such a large kneeling bow?”

Yu Hanjiang also walked inside in a confused manner. He saw Ye Qi lying in front of Xiao Lou and asked, “Little Ye, what is this?”

Ye Qi’s face was also ugly. “I-I’m also blind and accidentally tripped!”

Xiao Lou didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He reached out and fumbled for Ye Qi lying in front of me. “That is good. You can be my companion.”

Ye Qi crawled up. His hands were in the air for a while before he grasped Xiao Lou’s arm and grabbed it like it was a life-saving straw. “The feeling of blindness is too uncomfortable. It is hard to imagine the lives of the people of this village, who were blind from an early age.”

Shao Qingge and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.

Yu Hanjiang suddenly said, “I have an idea.”

Xiao Lou realized this person might’ve got a clue and instantly replied, “Group Leader Yu, you say it.”

“The secret room letting us experience three hours of blindness every day should be telling us that the life of the blind isn’t easy.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “Yes, I became blind and my walking was unstable. It is hard to believe that the children who were born blind learned to walk with their blind parents. They must’ve fallen countless times in the process.”

Yu Hanjiang folded his arms thoughtfully. “Everyone in this village is blind. Is it because their ancestors offended a blind person that they encountered such revenge?” He spoke slowly. “Since they bullied the blind, the mountain temple they worshipped was destroyed and their descendants fell into darkness forever?”

There were many types of disabilities. The villagers were deaf, mute or limping. They were collectively blind. The challengers entering the secret room would also experience three hours of blindness a day.

Xiao Lou had only been blind for half an hour and he felt a bit sick.

What great hatred was there to get revenge on an entire village, blinding future generations and plunging them into darkness all their lives?